1 [See Elucidation I. Written late in our author's life, this tract contains no trace of Montanism, and shows that his heart was with the common cause of all Christians. Who can give up such an Ephraim without recalling the words of inspired love for the erring?-Jer. Xxxi. 20; Hos. xi. 8.]

2 [Kaye points out our author's inconsistencies on this matter. If Caractacus ever made the speech ascribed to him (Bede, or Gibbon, cap. lxxi.) it would confirm the opinion of those who make him a convert to Christ: "Quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus." Elucidation II.]

3 [On this sort of Demonology see Kaye, pp. 203-207, with his useful references. See De Spectaculis, p. 80, supra.]

4 [An obvious play on the ambiguity of this word.]

5 [Notes of the time when this was written. See Kaye, p. 57.]

6 [Christians remembered Herod (Acts. xii. 23.) very naturally; but we may reserve remarks on such instances till we come to Lactantius. But see Kaye (p. 102) who speaks unfavourably of them.]

11 [Compare De Fuga, cap. xii. It is incredible that our author could exaggerate in speaking to the chief magistrate of Carthage.]

12 [Mosheim's strange oversight, in neglecting to include such considerations, in account for the growth of the church, is justly censured by Kaye, p. 124.]

1 [As a recapitulation I insert this here to close this class of argument for the reasons following.] This treatise resembles The Apology, both in its general purport as a vindication of Christianity against heathen prejudice, and in many of its expressions and statements. So great is the resemblance that this shotrer work has been thought by some to have been a first draft of the longer and perfect one. Tertullian, however, here addresses his expostulations to the general public, while in The Apology it is the rulers and magistrates of the empire whom he seeks to influence. [Dr. Allix conjectures the date of this treatise to be about a.d. 217. See Kaye, p. 50.]